CANVEY ISLAND 109 



a few years ago by the introduction of a policeman to 

 the island for the first time. It would be impossible 

 for those who have become familiar with " the bobby " 

 to conceive the storm of scorn and indignation 

 aroused by the arrival of this humble guardian of the 

 peace. " Canvey don't want no p'lice," insisted a 

 parlour orator ; " let 'em keep to the mainland, / says. 

 Ain't we already got the Clesiasticals ? " The 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners having been compelled 

 by bad times to take some land in hand themselves at 

 the other end of the island, were regarded by the 

 islanders as in some dim way an expression of 

 authority and interference, and as the authors of all 

 their woes. An abstraction known as "Guv'nment" 

 has the same significance in the minds of rustics in 

 other parts. "Fust chance I has," interposed our 

 friend the flight-shooter, "I leads him down in the 

 evening to the marshes beyent the fleets and takes the 

 planks up" — a Christian determination which was 

 much applauded. The fleets are deep and wide 

 ditches which bisect the flats in all directions ; they 

 are crossed by narrow planks at rare intervals, and a 

 stranger left down there on a cold winter's night 

 would fare badly indeed. 



Indiscriminate shooting has been the ruin of the 



